The Applicant has developed a wide range of printers that employ a pagewidth printheads instead of traditional reciprocating printhead designs. The pagewidth designs increase print speeds as the printhead does not traverse back and forth across the page to deposit a line of an image. The pagewidth printhead simply deposits the ink on the media as it moves past at high speeds. Such printheads have made it possible to perform 1600 dpi resolution printing at speeds in the vicinity of 60 pages per minute; speeds previously not attainable with conventional inkjet printers.
The high print speeds require a large ink supply flowrate. Not only are the flow rates higher but distributing the ink along the entire length of a page with printhead is more complex than feeding ink to a relatively small reciprocating printhead.
To prolong the life of the printhead, most inkjet printers will incorporate some type of maintenance facility. This may be as simple as capping the printhead when it is not in use. Capping a printhead will stop the ink on the nozzles from drying out. However it does not clean any paper dust or other contaminants that may have antiskid to be nozzle face. The most effective way to remove these particles is by wiping the nozzle face with a suitable surface. The microscopic nozzle structures are relatively delicate so the wiping surface needs to have a light surface contact. However the contact needs to the strong enough to dislodge the contaminants and dust.
The Applicant has developed a print engine that uses and the printhead maintenance facility which incorporates a wiper blade. The blade is made from a resilient material that flexes when it contacts the nozzle face so that the contact pressure is not damaging but are enough to collect dried ink and paper dust. Once the contaminants have been transferred to the wiper blade, the maintenance facility must be able to clean the wiper blade before it is contacts the nozzle face again. A microfibre cleaning pad can be used to clean the wiper blade. However this can sometimes drag the contaminants past the edge of the one blade such that they collect on the noncontact side of the blade. These contaminants continue to build up until they are read deposited on the nozzle face.